June 1998
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Since its inception in 1983, Compu-Quote Inc. has pioneered the development of rating software for the insurance industry. With offices across the country, Compu-Quote boasts over 2,000 broker clients and 100 plus employees. Over 90% of the premiums in the country are underwritten by insurers who use Compu-Quote's services. Its automated product line provides an effective way for brokers to compete in today's fast paced environment. Compu-Quote contacted ISMG in an effort to ease the burden of distributing regular software updates to subscribers. The result of updates.compu-quote.com is an automated software update system that extends Compu-Quote's lead in the competitive insurance software industry.
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The primary objective of the Compu-Quote software update site was to position the company as the leading provider of automated insurance software. This was to be accomplished by providing all subscribers with a simple and instant means for updating the ever-changing rates in their broker software. The site was also developed in tandem with the public Compu-Quote web site to ensure that the graphical interface was identical between the two sites. The use of the Internet to accomplish these goals also serves to accomplish the long-term objective of garnering a revenue stream with the site. This will be accomplished through the use of banner ads displayed on the download page as the user is waiting for the latest updates to be installed.
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Since the frequency of updates was high, mailing the changes was a costly process that produced many diskettes for the customer to process. In order to meet Compu-Quote's objectives, ISMG developed a solution that eliminated the old method of shipping diskettes by creating a site that users could go to - anytime, anywhere - and download the newest possible rates.
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ISMG used a wide variety of Microsoft technologies to build the Compu-Quote software update site including Microsoft NT Server 4.0, Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 and SQL Server 6.5. In addition, Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) objects were written to extend the capabilities of IIS4. These COM objects allowed IIS to handle Compu-Quote's proprietary rate-files for repackaging (based on user selection), encrypting, and finally, downloading.
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This new site for Compu-Quote is expected to reduce the cost of distribution and communication by a significant amount. It is also anticipated that the company will realize full payback on their initial investment in the project in a relatively short period of time.
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http://updates.compu-quote.com/
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